Recently, the Society received the generous donation of a remarkably well-preserved pair of boots from the factory of John Fletcher and Sons. John Fletcher’s name was very well-known in Acton in the 1800s, and his “Boot and Shoe Manufactory” was a town-center landmark that employed a significant number of townspeople. He left many traces in the written records of the era, some of which gave contradictory impressions of who he was as a person. We set out to learn more about him.

Early Life

John Fletcher was born in Acton to James (a young Revolutionary War soldier) and Lydia (White) Fletcher on July 21, 1790. In Acton’s vital records, we found siblings Betsy (b.1786), James (b. 1788), Daniel (1797-1799), Lydia (b. 1800), and several who died young and whose names were not recorded. James (the father) was involved in the business of Acton and donated a piece of his land in 1806 to be part of the Town Common. The family first lived on what is now Hammond Street but then moved to a farm near the first meeting house (off of Nagog Hill Road near what was then the Brooks Tavern). John’s son, (Rev. James), later wrote about their home site, “Here stood for many years, from 1794 on, the Fletcher homestead, where James Fletcher, the father of Deacon John Fletcher, and his brother James and Betsey, the sister, lived during childhood up to the years of maturity. A few feet from this ancient cellar hole to the west is the site of the first Fletcher russet apple-tree. Childhood’s memories easily recall the ancient unpainted cottage, the quaint old chimney with the brick-oven on the side, and the fire-place large enough for the burning of logs of size and length, and in front to the southeast a vegetable garden unmatched at the time for its culture and richness, and a large chestnut-tree to the south, planted by Deacon John, in early life.” (Acton in History, p. 247)

Though records of John Fletcher’s youth are hard to come by, we do have a physical description (from much later military pension records) that he had fair skin, black hair, and brown eyes. He no doubt attended the school nearby and would have helped on his father’s farm. As he got older, records show that he and his brother James Jr. served in the local militia. In April, 1808, John was already serving as a corporal in Capt. Simon Hosmer’s Company that became known as the Davis Blues. In 1810, John was chosen to be sergeant, and in 1813, he became the company clerk. By that time the country was at war. When the governor of Massachusetts called for troops to defend Boston in the fall of 1814, John Fletcher served as sergeant and clerk of what was by then Capt. Silas Jones’ Company. Brother James Fletcher was a corporal. According to Fletcher’s History, (p. 277-278) the company was first to report to headquarters and met with an enthusiastic reception as it marched through the streets of Boston. The British never attacked, however, and the company saw no action. The War of 1812 concluded soon thereafter. John continued to serve in the militia and eventually was made captain. Town meeting records refer to him as Captain John Fletcher in the years 1821 and 1822.

In June 1812, John’s brother James was initiated into the Masonic Lodge in Concord, and John followed in June 1813. Both men were proposed for membership by Simon Hosmer. In 1814, father James and James Jr. bought a farm from neighbor Paul Brooks, including a house, barn and cooper shop. Presumably, the intention was to expand the father’s farming operation and/or to establish James on a farm of his own. Unfortunately, James Sr. died on Dec. 9, 1815 by the falling of a tree (according to his tombstone and Fletcher’s History, p. 246), an event that must have shocked and greatly changed life for the family.

By 1814, we know that John Fletcher was already in the shoe business, as he listed his occupation as shoemaker when called up to serve in the War. In 1815, the town of Acton paid him $4.67 for providing shoes for the poor. We have not yet discovered details of the early years of his shoe enterprise, such as how he learned the trade, his sources of materials, and when he started hiring outside labor.

In March 1819, James Fletcher Jr. sold to his brother John for $250 a half of his share of the land he held, including his father’s two farms, a woodlot, and “all other lots of every kind which I am now in posion [possession] of”. The records of the brothers’ buying, borrowing, and selling of property are voluminous and hard to pin down completely, but the impression one gets is that John managed to pay off his debts but James may have had more trouble and needed cash infusions at times.

John and his brother James established a store together. Its exact beginnings are a little unclear from the records, but it was definitely operating before 1822 and probably by 1820 when James Fletcher’s census listing included two household members engaged in commerce. According to John’s son Rev. James Fletcher’s History (p. 272), the brothers’ first store was on the site of the present-day Memorial Library. We found from a deed dated Sept. 28, 1820 that James and John Fletcher, traders, bought a store near the meetinghouse from Francis Tuttle for $325. It was apparently quitclaimed by Widow Dorothy Jones on Dec. 7, 1821. (Land Records, Vol. 308, p. 232 & 233)

In January 1822, Worcester’s Massachusetts Spy ran an ad offering a reward to be paid by James and John Fletcher to help track down the criminal(s) who, on the morning of January 22, burned their store “after having been robbed (as is supposed) of its contents.” The brothers would pay $100 for “the detection of the Incendiary or Incendiaries, and the recovery of the Property -- or $50 for either.” (Jan. 30, 1822, p. 4) Surette’s History of Corinthian Lodge noted that on Feb. 4, 1822, “Bros. John & James Fletcher, of Acton, having met with a severe loss by fire, requested assistance from the Lodge, and a subscription paper was opened and signed by the members present.” (p. 128) Fletcher’s History says specifically that the store was on the library site when it “was burnt.”(p. 267)

Trying to identify a large portrait found in a South Acton barn (see blog post), we thought it might be Henry Barker, a self-made businessman whose his cider mill was well-known and a local employer for many years. We were surprised that little had been written about Henry himself and that we could not find a photograph of him. If anyone has any pictures of Henry, his family, and/or the business that could be scanned or otherwise shared, we would be grateful to add them to our collection.

Our first step was to search out Henry Barker’s obituary for the story of his life. We found a notice of his death in the Concord Enterprise (Aug. 29, 1917, p. 8), but we were disappointed to read that “He was one of the best known business men in this section for nearly 60 years and needs no obituary.” That was an unusual statement in the local paper; perhaps the editor did not have a lot of column room that day. We set out to learn what we could from other records.

The Barker name is well-known in Acton. In fact, there are so many Barkers, it is a challenge to disentangle them. However, we do know that Henry Barker was an Acton native, born about 1835 to Isaac Barker and Olive Handley. (The birth was not recorded in Acton, but his death notice in the Enterprise mentioned that he had been born in “the old Gould house on the crossroad to West Acton.”) Henry had three brothers that we know of, Joseph Edwin b. c. 1831, Herman b. c. 1845, and Charles b. c. 1848. Henry’s mother Olive and sister Clara Sophia both died in September 1848. His father married again to Eliza A. G. Bragg on Nov. 8, 1854 in Roxbury.

196 Main St (probably late 1880s)

Henry Barker married Louisa M. Atwood in Cornish, New Hampshire on Dec. 14, 1854. Children followed; Clara Louisa (probably born March 29, 1855; there was name confusion in the early records), Edson Henry (June 2, 1860- June 4, 1861), Addie Henrietta (b. Feb.4, 1863), Delmon Gustavus (Oct. 18, 1865-Oct. 18, 1869), Idella Josephine (b. May 10, 1869), Medora Carlotta (b. June 11, 1872), and Olive Genevra (b. Sept. 23, 1874). We do not know exactly where Henry lived in the first years of his marriage, but land records show that in 1860, Henry bought the house at 196 Main Street (on the outskirts of growing South Acton) from James and Susanna Graham.

Henry’s father Isaac was listed in the 1855 census as a Mast Hoop and Truss Hoop manufacturer. Henry, married and in a separate household, was listed as a Mast Hoop Maker. In his son’s 1860 birth record, Henry was listed as a “Hoop Shaver.” By June 1863, Henry was listed in a military service register as a “Market-man.” (He did not go off to fight in the Civil War; he was apparently deaf in his right ear.) The Society has H. Barker’s Internal Revenue Service 3rd Class Peddler’s License dated Sept. 1, 1863 that had been saved by Henry’s daughter Addie. Henry was still listed in the 1865 Massachusetts census as a Marketman.

Thanks to a note in an old scrapbook held in our library, we checked the probate record of farmer John Tenney (a neighbor of Henry’s father Isaac). We discovered in the November 1864 probate accounting that Henry Barker paid $25 to rent Tenney’s mill. As the only indications of mill products in Tenney’s estate were cider vinegar and barrels, it seems likely that Henry was already gaining experience operating a rented cider mill at that time.

In 1867, Henry Barker bought about a quarter of an acre of land at approximately 150 Main Street (bordered on the other side by today’s Central Street) and built his own cider mill. The 1870 census lists him as a cider manufacturer with real estate of $5000 and personal possessions worth $4000. His household included his wife Louise M., daughters Clara L., Addie H. and Idella J., and brothers Herman and Charles, both listed as cider makers. (The brothers later moved closer to Boston. Herman eventually went into other ventures, but Charles remained in the business.) The 1872 town valuation shows that Barker’s operation included a cider mill with presses, an apple house, a bottling house, and $4000 stock in trade.

From Walling Map, published 1871

Bill Klauer wrote about “Cider Production in Acton” in the Society’s Acton Revisited, Fall 2003. He noted that the Barker mill’s scales were located close to Main Street and their foundation can still be seen from the sidewalk. Farmers would have had their loads weighed, then apples were stored until they could be processed. The apples were sent to a grinding machine, and then the resulting pulp was squeezed in a strong press. The cider was collected in a large vat. The left-over pressed pulp was piled outside the mill, ready for farmers to haul away to be used as cattle feed.

In modern times, preservatives allow sweet cider to be bottled and kept for long periods. Without preservatives, cider fermented. Hard cider was a common beverage in Massachusetts’ early days, but by the time Henry Barker was in business, it was a target of the temperance movement and was beginning to lose ground to beer as the alcoholic beverage of choice. Another cider product, vinegar, required additional aging (with exposure to oxygen and bacteria) beyond the first stage of fermentation. The Boston Daily Advertiser, (Saturday June 26, 1875, p. 1) reported that “The cider mills of Mr. Henry Barker at South Acton are in successful operation. About 1000 barrels of rectified vinegar are on hand, and a large amount of cider has been bottled. The mills are run by steam.” In that year, Briggs & Co.’s Middlesex County Directory, ran an ad for Henry Barker, “Manufacturer, and Wholesale Dealer in Crude and Refined Cider and Cider Vinegar, South Acton, Mass.” (p. 92)

The business was clearly a success. Land purchases, a map dated 1889, and the 1890 Acton valuation show that Henry Barker enlarged his cider and vinegar operation over time, purchasing additional property on both sides of Central Street. In November, 1888, the Concord Enterprise reported that Henry Barker had put up the largest tank in the vicinity, 18 feet in diameter and 16 feet high. (Nov. 17, 1888, p. 2) Nearby, according to Mill Corner (Nylander and Forbes, p. 9), there was a spring (and a stone spring-house as early as 1875) on the opposite side of today’s Central Street from the mill that provided a water source. Next to the mill, the South Acton Universalist Church was built in 1878.

From 1889 Walker map of South Acton. Note that Main Street was labelled “Barker Street.”

By 1887, Henry had built an impressive home on the hill at 167 Main Street from which he could overlook the cider mill. The family seems to have owned a camera by that time and documented local scenes and some people, including this photo of “Stella” (probably Stella Heath, whose mother was a Barker) with the newly-constructed Henry Barker house in the background.

In October 1888, daughter Addie married Frederick L. Burke whose occupation was “Traveling Agent.” Henry had a home built for them just down the hill at 177 Main Street (now the home of the Discovery Museum). Fred Burke worked in the cider business and eventually became the manager of the cider mill. The couple named their son Henry Barker Burke.

Unusually for a man of such local success, Henry Barker did not show up much in the local newspaper except in the context of the cider mill. However, it was probably Henry who, as noted in our blog post on early Acton baseball, provided a field for the local team to play: “The Actons can boast of one of the finest ball grounds in the state, and all through the kindness of Mr. Barker who gives them the use of the ground and also keeps it in first-class shape. But it must be distinctly understood that his apples are not free, and the acts of last Saturday must not be repeated.” (Concord Enterprise, Aug. 18, 1888, p. 2) In town reports, we also found that Henry Barker was paid during the 1890s for maintaining two street lamps (a private duty in those days).

Henry Barker established a Boston store/office at 88 Commercial Street, a location not far from the waterfront, sometime between 1875 and 1878 when he was listed in Sampson, Davenport, and Company’s Boston Directory in the business of “vinegar, &c.”(p. 81). He was listed in 1883 as an agent for an industry newspaper at the same address (Geo. P. Rowell and Co.'s American Newspaper Directory, 1883, p. 610) and appeared there in Boston directories for the rest of his life. Brother Charles was listed in the 1880 Boston City Directory as a salesman at 88 Commercial St., living in South Acton. (p. 83) By 1882, the Malden directory showed him as a resident, working in “cider vinegar (88 Commercial, B.)” (p. 37) and Boston directories showed him in the business there in later years, including 1900 and 1915.

In the late 1880s, temperance agitation started to lead to legislative bans on the sale of “intoxicating liquors.” There was much uncertainty about whether cider, which was ”sweet” for only a short period before it fermented, would also be banned. The farmers of Acton, Boxborough and Stow were concerned about the effect of bans on their apple business, and confusion could not have been good for the Barker operation, either. Probably as a result, Henry Barker of South Acton was elected as a director of the Fruit Growers, Cider and Cider Vinegar Makers’ Association of Massachusetts. (Boston Journal, Jan. 8, 1890, p. 4)

Apple production and the cider vinegar industry made it through that period. 1896 saw a particularly large crop of apples. The Enterprise reported on October 1 that “Henry Barker received 1800 barrels of cider apples at his mill in three days last week. He is running his mill night and day.” (p. 8). On November 19, the Enterprise reported “Henry Barker is building another large tank for cider; he has already ground over 20,000 barrels and still they come.” (p. 8) During the autumn, the pressure to process all of the apples must have been intense. According to Phelan’s History of the Town of Acton, the Barker mill “ turned out thousands of barrels of cider which was stored in huge tanks and eventually shipped to the vinegar dispensing companies.... In a season when the fruitage was heavy, a combination of wind and rain could mean thousands of bushels arriving at the mill.... Wagons loaded to the limit would now and again form a queue a hundred yards long at the Barker mill.”(p. 263) Apples would also come in by rail from farmers farther afield. The Concord Enterprise of Oct. 21, 1897 mentioned apples being received by train from New Hampshire. (p.8)

The Society has one picture of the Barker Cider Mill, date unknown but probably before 1900; see blog post on photographer F. J. Taylor for an idea of the date.

The business had its share of troubles and tragedies. The Boston Daily Globe reported in 1887 that “an undersized boy of 14” expertly opened the cider mill’s safe (armed with a revolver). He was caught and fortunately no one was hurt. (Sept. 30, p. 13) In October, 1896, however, employee John Jackman was found expired in the large tank after having been at work all day. It was thought that he had been overcome by gasses. (Concord Enterprise, Oct. 15, 1896, p. 8, Acton death record) This may have been the reason the new tank was built in November 1896.

In the early morning hours of October 28, 1900, a fire started near the engine room of the Barker cider mill. A watchman alerted the village, and firemen came from the other Acton villages and Maynard, but their pumping soon overwhelmed the water supply from the spring-fed basin across the street. Barker’s storage tanks started leaking many gallons of cider, and someone had the idea to pump cider to douse the flames. It was an unsuccessful attempt, and two large buildings of the cider plant burned to the ground. The firemen were able to save a large storehouse, the large tank outside the building, and 55,000 gallons of vinegar. The thirty to forty men who had been working there at the time lost their source of employment, at least temporarily. (Concord Enterprise, Nov. 1, 1900, p. 8; Boston Herald, Oct. 29, 1900, p. 3) In the Enterprise, Henry Barker thanked all those who had come to assist in putting out the fire (Nov. 1, 1900, p. 8). After a period of uncertainty, on December 12, the Enterprise reported that Henry Barker would rebuild his mill on the old site. (p. 8) At the March 25, 1901 town meeting, Acton voted to upgrade its fire-fighting capacity immediately, to buy 800 more feet of rubber-lined hose for South Acton, and to purchase “the F. R. R. water supply basin located near the cider mill of Henry Barker [and to] excavate and properly fix said basin for a possible water supply in case of fire.” Also, the town voted to hire “a competent man at each part of the town where fire apparatus is located to properly care for it.”

One might have expected Henry Barker to slow down by the 1900s, but apparently, he did not. In 1908, the Enterprise reported that after a serious illness, “Henry Barker is able to attend to his business again and goes daily to Boston.” (Apr. 29, p8)

On January 22, 1914, Henry’s wife Louisa (Atwood) Barker passed away at the age of 81, after an illness of several months. Sometime in 1917, Henry moved to Dorchester to stay with his daughter. He remarried that summer; Acton’s records show that Henry Barker, merchant, age 82 (born in Acton, son of Isaac Barker and Olive Handley) married Emma C. (Sawyer) Gove of Boston, age 53 on July 28, 1917. Unfortunately, the marriage lasted only a few weeks.

On August 15, 1917, the Concord Enterprise reported that Henry Barker, who had been living in Dorchester for a few months, was suffering from gangrene of the foot. He had been operated on at the Forest Hills hospital, and there was at first hope for recovery. (p. 8) Unfortunately, he died in Boston on August 23, 1917. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. His heirs were his daughters, listed in the Concord Enterprise as Clara L. Barker, Addie H. Burke, Della J. Tuttle, all of Acton, and Olive G. B. Hunt and Medora C. Robbins, both of Melrose. (Sept 12, p. 4)

The Barker mill in South Acton operated for many years after Henry’s death. Owned at first by Addie (Barker) Burke then her husband Fred, it was later bought by J. P. W. von Laer Company of Boston. Fred Burke became a partner in the enterprise and continued to manage the mill until his death in 1940. On October 27, 1951, the Barker Mill burned down again. It was the end of an era.

Recently, we came across a collection of pictures that were found in the attic of a house on Kinsley Road, evidently once the home of members of the Beach family. Thumbtack holes in the mats show that they had been displayed on a wall, indicating that they were all of family members or close friends.

Among the pictures were several of men in a work setting. Two were labelled “Hall Bros,” a West Acton manufacturer of wooden ware that was an important employer in the village for many years. Two were duplicates of photos already in our collection for which some Hall Brothers employees had been identified:

Our duplicate copy of this picture says on the back: "Back Row / 4th from Right Ernie Banks / First man Ben Coolige / fifth from right Archie Beach".

This duplicate of a Hall Brothers photo had no identification, but our other copy did:

Our duplicate gave the following identifications:

Back Row, standing:

Ben Coolidge

Unknown

"Pop" French

Starky

Otis Mott

Front Row (2 young boys not included):

Bill Charter

Archie Beach

?

Lee Coolidge

?

?

Reuben Morgan

Charlie Wood

Duncan Kennedy

Given this identification, Ben Coolidge must the man standing in the back right of the previous picture, where he would be the "first man" from the right.

The next photo featured tubs, pails, churns and other wooden products, so we easily accepted the Hall Brothers identification written on its back. However, after we scanned and enlarged the photo, we were surprised to see that a large churn was painted with the slogan “Get the Best The Blanchard Churn”, and a box said “The Blanchard Print Butter Carrier.” Now we were confused. Was our picture labelled incorrectly? Did someone assume that wooden ware must have been Hall Brothers’? Was this perhaps another company associated with West Acton’s Blanchard family?

Fortunately, knowledgeable members of the Society often can save us a lot of research time. One told us that Hall Brothers bought the Blanchard churn patent. Blanchard churns were actually a well-known New Hampshire product. A Biennial Report from New Hampshire’s Bureau of Labor (dated 1902) reported that “In December, 1900, Nashua lost the Blanchard Churn company, whose entire plant was purchased by parties from West Acton, Mass., and removed to that town.” The Boston Herald (Dec. 28, 1900, p. 10) reported that Blanchard’s stock and machinery had been purchased by Hall Brothers to enlarge their business. Searching our collection of items related to Hall Brothers’ operation, we found a piece of Hall Brothers letterhead; their logo by that time featured a list of products sold by the company including “Improved Cylinder, Blanchard and Lightning Churns,” butter molds, carriers, tubs and pails. Our picture seems to have been a good representation of the company’s business. One mystery solved. But who are the men in the picture? Given the identifications above, we believe that Ben Coolidge is on the left and Archie Beach is on the right. Can anyone help us with our identification?

Our next picture had no identification, but at least two of the young men are also in the churn and pail picture. Were they all Hall Brothers employees? Were they relatives? Is the one on the left Archie J. Beach or someone else?

The photo collection also included a wonderful interior picture of workers at a mill, many of them barefoot. We think it may be the upstairs level of the South Acton Woolen Mill. We do not know the identities of the men in the photo. We would appreciate any clues.

Finally, there were family photos. The first two appear to be nearly the same group of women:

We have no clues about the women in white blouses below:

For reference, at different times and from different descendants, we have received two copies of the following photo of the Beach family around 1905. The woman in the chair is apparently Georgiana (Munroe) Beach who was born c. 1823, in Granville, Nova Scotia, married George William Beach, lived at the end of her life in West Acton with her daughter Estella (Mrs. Ernest) Morse, and died in Acton in December, 1909. According to an unsourced/undated obituary, she had sixteen children, eighty-seven grandchildren, seventy-two great-grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren at the time of her death, leaving plenty of room for confusion about identification of family members. Based on the pictures’ donors’ information and suggestions from other family members, we have some identifications for this picture and a number of remaining questions. Can you confirm/correct these identifications or identify others?

Researching the life of Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner for a recent blog post, we discovered that all of her sons left Acton to build businesses elsewhere. Abraham, the eldest, moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts and became a trader. By the census of 1870, he had amassed personal possessions worth $30,000, an unusually large amount in those days. Second son Henry moved to Andover and opened a store with a partner. Henry died young, and his probate file contained an extensive inventory. Francis, the youngest son, reportedly went to Boston and became a successful merchant. Fletcher’s Acton in History noted that he was generous to Henry’s widow, and probate records show that Francis became guardian to Henry’s son.

We set out to find Acton’s Francis Skinner, merchant of Boston. We had a surprising amount of difficulty at first. We did find a Francis Skinner who was fabulously wealthy for the time. His son and grandson were mentioned in Boston newspapers as members of a “prominent” family in the top tier of Boston society. Acton’s Francis Skinner grew up relatively secure, but not rich, the son of a doctor and descendant of a respected family in a small country town. He was only thirteen when his father died and would have started out with almost nothing. We were convinced that the Francis we found in Boston could not possibly be “our” Francis. But we were wrong.

Acton’s records and histories did not help us to connect the Boston merchant Francis Skinner to Acton, but fortunately, Boston’s newspapers provided a great deal of information. Commerce, wealth, connections, gossip, and a touch of “scandal” gave reporters plenty to work with, and we were able to put together a story of three generations of Francis Skinners who were unknown to us.

The Society recently was given an 1834 letter that had been sold as a postage collector’s item, a “cover” that pre-dated the use of stamps. Folded, it was addressed to Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Inside, the letter was preserved: Acton Feb. 8, 1834,Mr. Skinner, I have neglected, longer than I intended to do, to inform you of your mother’s health. She is pretty comfortable this winter, would be very, were it not for the continued pain in her eyes. She has not had the least perception of light for several months. Her situation is in many respects less uncomfortable since she has become more accustomed to perfect darkness. She grows familiar with the house, and walks with much less confusion, is some part of the time, able to busy herself with knitting, which she considers quite a privilege.She wishes to be affectionately remembered to you.I am much oblidged to you for the papers, which you had the goodness to send me. Respectfully yr Cousin, M. Faulkner

One cannnot help being touched by the letter and feeling admiration for Mrs. Skinner who, while dealing with pain and disruption, felt privileged to be able to knit. We set out to learn more about Mrs. Skinner, her son Abraham, and the writer of the letter.

Mrs. Skinner and Her Family

Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Mass. was born in Acton on July 25, 1789 to Dr. Abraham and Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner. According to Phalen’s History of the town of Acton (page 98), the father, Dr. Abraham Skinner, was Acton’s third physician. He had come from Woodstock, CT, for reasons we have not yet been able to discover, and started his Acton practice in 1781. He married Sarah Faulkner in March 1788.

Sarah (or Sally) Faulkner was the daughter of Francis Faulkner and Rebecca Keyes whose large family lived in the landmark Faulkner House in South Acton. Francis was prominent in Acton. He ran the Faulkner mills, represented the people in the Provincial Congress of 1774 and the Committee of Safety, attained the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Revolutionary War, and served the town in numerous roles, including a 35-year stint as town clerk. According to Shattuck’s history of Concord and surrounding towns (pages 292-293), Francis and Rebecca Faulkner had eleven children. (We were able to confirm ten of the births through Acton vital records; one is harder to pin down.) Sarah was the third child.

Dr. Abraham and Sarah Skinner had four children, Abraham (born 1789), Henry (born 1792), Maria (born 1794), and Francis (born 1797). Fletcher’s Acton in History gives two different identities for Dr. Abraham’s wife, an odd mistake given that Fletcher seems to have known Henry’s aged widow. Perhaps the doctor was married earlier elsewhere, but we found no record of it. All Acton records show that the wife and mother of Dr. Abraham’s family was Sarah Faulkner.

We did not find any documentary evidence of Sarah’s life while she was raising her children during the 1790s and earliest years of the 1800s. Her husband does show up in local records. He received payments periodically for “doctering” the town’s poor, and in September 1792, the town voted upon temporarily opening a quarantine “house” for inoculating residents against smallpox under the direction of Dr. Skinner, provided that it could be done ”with Safty” for the townspeople.

Dr. Abraham Skinner was apparently one of the contributors to the cost of a winning ticket from the Harvard College lottery in 1794. His share of the prize money has been said to have gone into building or improving a house for the Skinners’ growing family at what is now 140 Nagog Hill Road. Land records show that Abraham paid David Barnard on Sept. 5, 1786 for a 60 acre farm and the east half of the existing house on the property, plus a half interest in the barn, garden, yard, wells, and a “cyder mill” behind the house. On Sept 27, 1788, Dr. Skinner paid Reuben Brown for 18 acres of land and the other half of the house, barn and barnyard. Specifically excluded from the sale was a school house standing on the premises.

Dr. Abraham Skinner became a charter member of Concord’s Corinthian Masonic Lodge in 1797 along with Sarah’s brother Winthrop Faulkner. [See Surette’s history of the Lodge.] Abraham was appointed to Acton’s school committee in 1799 and 1809 and to the large committee formed in 1805 to deal with the contentious issue of where to locate the new meeting house. He died in 1810. Records of the time did not mention the cause.

Dr. Abraham’s estate inventory gives us an idea of the life of the household. The home farm was valued at $2,500, and there were fifteen additional acres of pasture land in Littleton and a pew in the Acton meeting house. The Skinners owned clothing, furniture, (a variety of beds, tables, chairs, and a bookcase), bedding and table linens, a woolen carpet, several looking glasses, a day clock worth about $30, spinning wheels, dishes, utensils, towels, table cloths, tools, chaises, a sleigh, a horse, harnesses, a saddle, cows, sheep, a cart and a plow. There is little evidence of a medical practice, not surprising given the state of medicine at the time. Dr Skinner did own a medical library. In addition, there were numerous debts to Dr. Skinner from townspeople. The estate was originally administered by Sarah’s brother Winthrop, but Henry took over by September 1814.

Sarah Skinner was listed as the head of household in the 1810 census with two males between 10 and 25, one female between 16 and 25, and one other “free white person”. In May, 1811, children Henry and Maria (minors above the age of fourteen) petitioned the probate court to allow “Widow Sarah Skinner” to be their guardian. Son Francis made the same petition in April, 1812. Son Abraham had already left his parents’ household by 1810.

According to Fletcher’s History (Biographical Sketches, page 1), Sarah’s sons Henry and Francis helped to run the farm for a while. Henry appears in Acton militia lists in the 1810-15 period, and Francis appears in 1815. In Feb. 1816, the town paid Henry Skinner for boarding John Faulkner for 8 weeks. During that year, Francis left to work in Boston. Henry eventually moved to Andover and opened a store there. No Skinner is listed as head of household in the 1820 Acton census, so we have to assume that Sarah was living with relatives by then. The actual sale of the Skinner farm to Charles Tuttle was not completed until 1827. Acton’s history books made no more mention of Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner.

Skinner Voices, from Indiana

Because Sarah Skinner disappears from Acton’s history books in the 1810s, the letter describing her later life is a wonderful addition to our Society’s archives. However, it turns out that ours was not the only letter from the Skinner family that survived. The University of Notre Dame Special Collections’ Manuscripts of Early National And Antebellum America contains a collection of letters to and from Abraham Skinner of Brookfield. A few of the letters were written by his mother Sarah. Given how seldom women's thoughts and actions were recorded in our histories, finding this collection was a wonderful surprise. Sarah's letters start in about 1806 and continue after she lost her husband. Sarah mentioned some news of family members, but what stands out most from her letters is how much she missed her son and wanted him to write and to visit more often. Her letters are a reminder of how difficult separation was for families of the time and how completely cut-off they must have felt when letters failed to arrive, sometimes for very long periods.

We also learned from the Skinner correspondence that Henry was in Brookfield for a while in 1811 but then returned to Acton by early 1812. His letters show that he was trying to find work in a store in either location, clearly ready to move on from the farm. The Skinner collection also includes a March 1817 letter from daughter Maria Skinner, the only record that we have seen of her beyond the mention of her birth and death in Acton's vital records. Maria echoed her mother's yearning to hear from the men of the family, including Francis who had not been in Acton since the summer before. Maria, left at home, was feeling "allmost forsaken." She also mentioned that Sarah had provided lodging for "Mr. Potter" followed by another family, so we now know that Sarah had others in her household during the years after losing her husband.

Who wrote the 1834 letter about Sarah Skinner?

After researching Sarah's life, our next question was who, exactly, wrote the letter donated to our Society. “M. Faulkner” signed the letter to Sarah’s son Abraham as “yr Cousin.” On the reverse of the letter, in a very different hand, there is a notation: “Mary Faulkners Letter Feby 8, 1834”. Allowing for the possibility that the term “cousin” might have been used somewhat loosely, we could still narrow down the potential writers.

We searched Acton’s Vital Records for “M” Faulkner births. Of the six births we found, five were Marys. Omitting details of our research here, we concluded that the most likely candidate was Mary, born Sept. 11, 1801 to Winthrop (Sarah’s brother) and Mary (Wright) Faulkner. This Mary actually would have been Abraham Skinner, Esq.’s first cousin. She lived to 1871 and never married, so she still would have had her Faulkner surname in 1834. We thought that our research would stop there, but our theory received a boost from a rich source that we did not expect to find.

Sarah Skinner, a Woman of Note

Researching Acton in the early years of the nineteenth century is made more difficult by a lack of available newspapers and very few surviving letters and diaries. However, sometimes one gets lucky. Not only did we come across the Skinner Family Correspondence at Notre Dame, but we found Sarah mentioned in two Boston newspapers after she died in 1846. Her death was briefly noted in Boston’s Emancipator and Republican (March 25, 1846), and the Boston Recorder (March 26, 1846) published a memorial tribute. Signed “W,” it was dated Acton, Mass., March 19th, 1846 and included a request that it be reprinted in other religiously-oriented newspapers in the Northeast. The writer felt compelled to write about Mrs. Sarah Skinner, described as “always polite, well informed, kind, lovely,” interesting, unwavering in her faith, and happy. When younger, she had liked to read, but having suffered greatly during the "complete destruction of her eyes," at the end of her life she was “stone blind.” Her hearing, fortunately, continued to be acute. She still enjoyed conversing, and her interest in life and her friends was undiminished. As we surmised from the 1834 letter, she did not complain about her life but found much to be grateful for. “Her only daughter was long since dead, but she had left grandsons, able loving and true; and she had a pious unmarried niece, who was altogether a daughter unto her, to the last.” The cousin of Abraham Skinner who wrote our letter, Mary Faulkner, was presumably this unmarried niece, daughter of Sarah’s brother Winthrop.

We thought, when we started this research, that Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner had been neglected by history. We were delighted to discover that it was possible to learn something about her, a woman clearly remarkable for her fortitude. We also know from her own letters that she was human, sometimes lonely and sometimes anxious about her absent children.

Many of Acton’s stories have been lost, but we are grateful to have found this one. As we begin the new year, we take this opportunity to express appreciation for people who donate items to archives and for organizations that work to preserve and share them so that others can learn about the past. In the context of Sarah Skinner’s story, we especially would like to thank the University of Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections for their assistance with our research.

In discussions of notable citizens in a town’s history, women, whose roles in the community were usually less publicized, are often overlooked. Researching Acton women who stood out despite their limited opportunities led us to Clara (Hapgood) Nash, the first woman admitted to the bar in New England.

Clara (born Clarissa) Hosmer Hapgood was the fifth child of John Hapgood and Mary Ann Hosmer, both Acton natives who lived for a time in Fitchburg where Clara was born on January 15, 1839. The young family returned to Acton in 1846. Clara and her surviving siblings David, Henry, Ephraim and Luke grew up on John’s farm on Central Street with many cousins living nearby. Clara attended Acton public schools and later studied at college-preparatory Peirce Academy in Middleboro.

Clara started teaching in the Acton schools in the spring term of 1862. In the fall of that year, Clara’s brother Henry left with Acton’s Company E, Sixth Regiment to serve the Union cause. The Society is extremely fortunate to have been given letters between Henry and his family, including Clara. From them, we learn something about her life and personality. She was a busy young woman. She wrote to Henry about her school, her class of 49 students (or more), and the pressure of end-of-term oral examinations that were open to the public. In addition to teaching, she supported the temperance cause and became editor of the pro-temperance publication “The Crystal Font.” In her free time, she attended lectures and at least one teachers’ conference and visited with friends and family.

The letters show that Clara’s family was close-knit and caring. Clara wrote to Henry about their parting (September 27, 1862):

“Do you remember our last meeting at the school house? Well when I went back into school I had a little cry and before I got over it in came Mr. Norten to visit the school and soon after I called the school to order some one rapped and who should appear at the door but Mr. Richardson [the superintendent]. .... So you see I had to muster all the dignity I was capable of notwithstanding my sadness.”

Clara also wrote about having to teach her school after a cousin brought her a letter from Henry in September 1862. She was impatient to read his letter, because “we are so anxious constantly.” Later letters mention sending foodstuff and supplies to Henry, with Clara reminiscing about her own pleasure in receiving items from home when she was studying in Middleboro (October 30, 1862).

Clara taught in the West Acton school, teaching the higher department in the 1862 spring and fall terms (that evidently included her younger brothers) and the primary department in the winter. She was paid $18 per month (School Report 1862-1863, page 33). As was customary at the time, male scholars were brought in to teach in the winter term when “big boys,” otherwise needed for farm work, joined the classes. Mr. W. E. Eaton took over the higher department at West Acton. Frederick C. Nash, from Tufts College, taught the higher department of the South Acton School for two winter terms (1861-1862 and 1862-1863). The winter-term men were paid $40 monthly. Pay inequality was rampant at the time, but the men were also paid a premium for handling what was considered a harder assignment.

Clara and Frederick C. Nash met and obviously found that they had common interests. Her brother Luke commented in a letter (December 21, 1862):

“Henry who do you suppose is in the parlor? I will tell you it is Mr. F. C. Nash teacher of So. Acton School. He was here last Sunday night and several other nights has been home with Clara from the Lyceum & Sons of Temperance she went with him to Concord last Wednesday night to hear H. W. Beecher, Lecture before the Lyceum.... dont tell Clara that I told about Mr Nash for if you do perhaps I would get an old fashioned Scotch blessing [a tongue lashing].”

Clara’s teaching was reported on favorably in the 1862-1863 report (page 27). Her students did well in their final examinations, despite the fact, (disappointing to Clara), that in the winter term, some of her “best” pupils had the mumps at the time of the examination (Letter from David Hapgood, March 8, 1863). Clara taught the West Acton higher department again in the spring and fall of 1863. The fall term of 1863 must have been extremely difficult for the family; Henry was home from war in a very debilitated state. He wrote to his cousin Delette Hall in September 1863 that it was doubtful that he would recover, despite the best efforts of “Mother and a kind physician.” Clara’s health weakened as well. In the 1863-64 town report, George C. Wright of the local school committee wrote that:

“Miss Hapgood commenced her labors with her accustomed zeal, and had it not been for her failing health, owing to too much care and anxiety on account of sickness at home, would have merited that approbation which she has always won.... We hope, after a rest to recruit mind and body, Miss Hapgood will again engage in the work of teaching, for which she is well fitted.” (page 30)

Henry, unfortunately, did not survive his illness. One can only imagine how hard it was for the family. Eventually, Clara regained her health. Her father mentioned in an April 1864 letter that she was at school in New Ipswich, NH (apparently Appleton Academy). She was called to teach the upper department of the South Acton school in the winter of 1865-66. The school committee’s comment after that term was that “the school had flourished under her management.” (page 11) According to various biographical sketches (for example Who’s Who in New England, Vol. 1, 1909, page 679), Clara attended the State Normal School at Framingham, graduating from the advanced class, and later taught in high schools in Marlborough and Danvers.

So far, Clara seemed like a typical woman of her time. Obviously intelligent, she followed the path available to her, going to a teacher’s college and teaching in local schools. She married Frederick Nash on January 1, 1869 in Acton. They moved to Columbia Falls, Maine where Frederick had grown up and established a law practice.

For most women of Clara’s time, marriage would have been the end of her career. However, in Columbia Falls, Clara studied law in the office of her husband. (Law training was typically done with a practicing lawyer.) Starting in January, 1871, newspapers started reporting that Mrs. Clara Nash had become a justice of the peace after completing her law studies in her husband’s office. (At some point over the next few months, someone mistakenly changed her location to Columbia, NH, and that “news” spread across the country.) In 1872, Clara was examined by a committee in Machias, Maine. They unanimously agreed that she was qualified and formally admitted her to the Bar of the Supreme Judicial Court in Maine in October 1872, giving her full standing in the legal profession, a first for New England. Clara’s feat was widely reported in newspapers throughout the country. Clara and Frederick became partners in a law practice, first in Columbia Falls, then in Portland. According to the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (1 November 1873), Clara made a stir by actually appearing in court in the case of John D. Allen v. Town of Jonesboro, presenting legal arguments with references from previous legal decisions and examining witnesses.

Son Frederick was born in Portland, Maine on January 3, 1874. We do not have much specific information about Clara during the early years of his life, but she apparently juggled motherhood and legal work. She was listed as an attorney at law in the 1879 Portland, Maine directory with the firm of F. C. & C. H. Nash at 119 ½ Exchange. Surprisingly, the 1880 census reported that on June 9, Frederick and Clara Nash, both listed as lawyers, were with son Fred in Minneapolis. So far, we do not know why they were in the Midwest on that date. Shortly thereafter, the Nash family returned to Acton, taking up residence in the Hapgood farmhouse (at today’s address 149 Central Street). Frederick established a law practice in Boston and also was available for consultation at home in the evening and at South Acton before taking the train to the city. He also served as Acton’s Superintendent of Schools in the 1880s and was involved in other town matters including the formation of West Acton's Citizens' Library.

Clara may have helped Frederick privately with his legal business, but she did not formally practice law in Massachusetts. (Her home state had not yet admitted a woman to the bar at the time the Nash family returned.) Clara used her energies in other ways and quickly found her place back in the community. She served as the first librarian of the Citizens’ Library in West Acton (for about two years starting in 1883, apparently without pay). Clara was also a temperance supporter as her family had been for many years. A copy of a broadside sent to the Historical Society shows that in 1885, she was the Secretary of the Middlesex North-West Temperance Union. She was very active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, (a group that coalesced over the issue of temperance and became a leading organization in the struggle for women’s and children’s rights). Clara served as the local Union’s president for 24 years and eventually was honored with a life membership in appreciation of her years of service.

Clara was also noted as a poet. The poems were interspersed with bits of family and local history that we might otherwise have missed. Her style was of her time, but the emotions underlying her poems were universal. Clara put her feelings about parting with her soldier brother Henry into a poem that was later published as “Sister I Must Go.” “Song in Death” was written about the way he dealt with his final sickness. Many of her poems were written for the birthdays, anniversaries and funerals of family members and friends. At the dedication of Acton’s Memorial Library, Clara read a poem about Acton’s history that she had written for the occasion. Some of Clara’s poems were published in the Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review in 1894, and in 1909, a collection of her poetry was published as Verses by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, MA). In 1917, her poem “Mother” was set to the music of E. S. Hosmer and turned into a four-part song.

Sometime around early 1915, Frederick and Clara moved from the old Hapgood farmhouse in Acton. In 1920, Frederick and Clara were living at 10 Oak Terrace in Newton. On February 18, 1921, Frederick C. Nash passed away. Clara followed him on March 5. They had both recently turned 82 years old and spent over fifty years together. They were buried in Mount Hope Cemetery with Clara’s parents and most of her siblings, not far from the home in which she was raised and where she and Frederick spent most of their adult lives.

One of Clara’s poems was entitled “Woman’s Work,” the theme of which was women’s evolving and expanding roles, from women mentioned in the Bible to pioneers whom Clara clearly admired. Clara wrote (in part):

She (Caroline Herschel, astronomer) solves the problem of the stars, And woman’s narrow bound unbars.

By constant care and skill Through prejudicial woes, By woman’s strong, undaunted will The woman’s college rose. ...

A voice breaks like a spell, To woman it rings clear: “Do what you can and do it well! Through out the so-called ‘sphere.’” ...

Clara wound up the poem by writing of women’s roles as caregivers from the birth of their children to the end of the lives of their loved-ones. She concluded with a call to women:

Heaven’s high behest to heed,With ready sympathy to seeHumanity’s sore need.And, seeing, haste to give redress,To right its wrongs, to cheer and bless.

We would love to find out more about Clara (Hapgood) Nash and her family. If you know of any sources of information, documents, or photographs, we would be delighted to learn more. We are also looking for a full copy of E. S. Hosmer’s song “Mother” from 1917. Please contact us if you can help.

Our previous blog post discussed finding a forgotten location by consulting our copy of the Scarlett map of Acton. (The original was drawn in a notebook owned by the Acton Memorial Library.) Scarlett’s work was so careful and useful, we wanted to know more about him. At first, we were confused about why D. Henry Scarlett, who seemed to have lived in Tewksbury, MA for most of his life, became interested in Acton and knowledgeable about its history. It turns out that his Acton connections were more extensive and long-lasting than we had expected.

Daniel Henry Scarlett was born in Bedford, MA on March 23, 1884 where his father was superintendent of the town farm. His parents were Henry C. Scarlett who grew up in West Boylston, MA and Mary S. Mace who grew up in Tewksbury. From Daniel Henry’s notebook, we learned that the family lived in Acton about 1887-1892. Acton town reports confirm that his father and mother were running Acton’s town farm during those years. The family then moved to Tewksbury where father Henry was known as a successful farmer. Though his parents’ marriage had publicized problems, Daniel Henry was listed as living with both parents in the 1900 census. In 1905, his father Henry, divorced, married Hattie (Norton). In the 1910 census, Daniel Henry was living with his father, stepmother, new siblings William and Carrie, and his father’s new mother- and sister-in-law. Daniel Henry worked for the Boston and Maine Railroad as a crossing tender at Tewksbury/Baldwin Station near the Tewksbury State Infirmary. He was a “flagman,” at his signaling post evidently every day of the week, a job he began around 1908 and continued until 1926. His father Henry died in 1929. In the 1930 census, stepmother Hattie, siblings, and “D. Henry” were listed as living together. D. Henry was then a gardener at the State Infirmary.

"Very Ingenious Fellow"

Tracing D. Henry Scarlett’s life only through vital records and censuses, one would not realize how many interests and talents he had. D. Henry Scarlett was an amateur astronomer. He had no formal training, but he used his earnings from the railroad to buy telescopes. He told a reporter that “I am almost as familiar with the stars as with the streets of Lowell, and I dearly love to study them. I haven’t any observatory, but I hope to have one some day.” Lowell Sun (Nov. 11, 1915 p. 6) During 1911-1912, he observed Mars through a five-inch telescope set up on his father’s land. His observations and drawings were published in Popular Astronomy (1914, vol. 22). His patience and attention to detail were quite obvious. Professor A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard described his work as “wonderful”; Scarlett had shown that an amateur with a relatively low-powered telescope could observe much more than astronomers had believed possible. Scarlett said in the Nov. 1915 Lowell Sun interview that one had to make one’s observations when the atmosphere was right; he had been known to be out all night, even enduring sub-zero temperatures in order to get his observations.

D. Henry Scarlett received recognition for his work. He was made an honorary member of the Astronomical Society of France. High school classes came from Lowell to look through his telescope. According to a later interview, when World War 1 came, he thought he would be called up, so he donated his telescope to Harvard. He registered for the draft but evidently was not called. He continued to save his railroad earnings, hoping to build his own observatory. He bought a piece of land in the Wamesit part of Tewksbury across from the post office (evidently at 283 Main Street). A 3-ton, level base was installed on the property and drilled with bolt holes to hold down a telescope. Scarlett built a small home and a protective structure that was placed on two railroad tracks so that it could be moved out of the way when the telescope was in use. In 1928, his dream came to fruition and he obtained a 12-inch reflector telescope. Over the next few years, his observatory was visited by many teachers and students. (Lowell Sun, Dec. 19, 1931, p. 14)

Astronomy was only one of Scarlett’s interests. He was an avid collector, taking a particular interest in geology, botany, and history. A 1931 article (Lowell Sun, Dec. 19, p. 14) said that the stone wall and brick walk that Scarlett had built outside his observatory were made of items of either scientific or historical interest. One of the stones was taken from the cellar wall of Acton’s first house. To our surprise, the paper mentioned that the centerpiece of his garden “which attracts the attention of passers-by is a clever piece of workmanship, begun by Mr. Scarlett when he was 16 years of age and completed recently. It is an exact replica in miniature of the Acton memorial." Under that, he placed soil from the graves of Capt. Isaac Davis the other Acton men killed on April 19, 1775 (presumably taken from Acton’s Common).

It turns out that the display was actually an evolution of Scarlett’s work as a teenager that merited mention in the Boston Daily Globe (Aug. 4, 1901, page 25). As a seventeen-year-old, D. Henry Scarlet had created a 75x100 foot miniature village representing Acton on his parent’s farm at 1018 Livingston Street in Tewksbury. It contained a 14-foot model of the Acton monument, a replica of the Congregational church, a railway, trains, cemeteries, the town farm, and a number of houses, buildings, and streets. He kept a guest log to record his many visitors. His father was interviewed for the article; at the time, he sounded a bit dubious about the extent of his son’s absorption in the project and suggested that his talents might be better developed away from the farm.

D. Henry Scarlett later worked for the railroad. His flag man’s shanty was described by a newspaper reporter as revealing “neatness personified,” made more habitable by cupboards and chairs that Scarlett had made. (Lowell Sun, Nov. 11, 1915, p6). He probably had time between trains to attend to his hobbies, or perhaps he indulged his creativity after work. His woodworking also included custom-designed items made of pieces of historically significant wood. One of his ornamental cups was described as “made from wood taken from the home of Capt. Davis in which [Scarlett] set small pieces of wood, all splendidly matched, from the homes of every one of the soldiers in Capt. Davis’ company.” (Lowell Sun Dec 19, 1931, p. 14). He had been working with "historic" wood for many years by that point, apparently having been inspired by similar work done by members of the Bunker Hill Historical Association, especially Reuben Law Reed. (The Society has one of Reed's creations.) In March, 1906, Henry Scarlett donated to the town of Acton an ornamental gavel, sounding block, powder horn, and case that he had created out of 188 pieces of wood, brick, stone, and other materials from historic properties. He included in the case a notebook describing the contents of his gift and then made at least one backup copy in which he described the significance of all of the pieces and added historical tidbits that he had learned from talking to Acton residents during visits to the town. (Jenks Library is fortunate to have a scan and a transcription.) The notebook also contained his Acton maps with notes about his sources, drawings of the sword of Captain Isaac Davis, and a record of his speech at the presentation of his gift at Town Meeting:

“Perhaps you think it strange that a young man should take so much interest in this town... I lived in this town from the time I was three years old until I was eight; five years of the pleasantest days of my childhood. I commenced to attend church in that old meeting-house around the corner and began my education in that School-house a few steps down the street.... As I grew up, I decided that someday I would make Acton some kind of a present, as many others have already done.... as an object lesson to all who wish to look upon its contents, and examine the records concerning the same.”

The five years of Henry’s early Acton residence included the dedication of the Acton Memorial Library when Acton’s citizens and former residents were contributing funds and items of historical significance to its collection. The 1890s were years in which pride in the town’s history was at a very high level; the enthusiasm must have had a large influence on the young boy. Only in his early twenties in 1906, Henry Scarlett had obviously spent a lot of time talking to Acton residents (whom he mentioned by name). His notes about the tiny relics used in his gift are filled with detailed memories that would otherwise have been lost.

Back to Acton, and then West

Around 1936, Henry Scarlett sold off his Tewksbury property and moved his home and observatory to land that once belonged to Captain Isaac Davis (across the street from the site where Davis’s house once stood). Evidently, Scarlett replicated the arrangement he had created in Tewksbury for sheltering his telescope. Jenks Library has pictures taken by Belle Choate of how his yard looked decades later; the base created for the telescope and remnants of the tracks used for moving its protective structure were still there. Construction was evidently done by November 11, 1936 when the Concord Enterprise reported that village boys had been guests at the Acton Astronomical Observatory of D. Henry Scarlett on Isaac Davis Way. The boys viewed rare items in the home and then looked at the moon through the telescope.

In 1937, Daniel Henry Scarlett married Mrs. Helen (Arnot) Harris, a native of Ontario, daughter of David Arnot and Isabelle McElwaine. Scarlett was 52 and listed as retired. After having stayed in place for so many years, in retirement, D. Henry was free to travel. The couple took a “motor trip” through Canada in 1938, returned via Niagara Falls for short time, and then headed to Mexico, sailing out of New Orleans, and then to Southern California where Helen’s brother lived. On their trip to Mexico, they were accompanied by 21-year-old Alfred N. McDougall from West Acton.

For all of D. Henry Scarlett’s affection for Acton, he did not stay long. In 1942, he sold his property and moved out west. By early 1944, the couple was living on Oracle Road in Tucson, Arizona. Both died in Tucson, Helen on May 20, 1946 and D. Henry on June 17, 1958. They were buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson.

Our lesson from researching Henry Scarlett is that even in this era when we can access so much online, archives and libraries hold treasures that are easy to miss. In this case, Henry Scarlett’s work was preserved at Acton’s Memorial Library and shared with our predecessors at the Society. We are lucky that Acton history was among Daniel Henry Scarlett’s many interests and that he took the time to record stories from older townspeople. As we discover so often, history unrecorded is history lost.

Having just written in our previous blog post about how easily history can be forgotten, we discovered that the same can be said about other people’s historical research. At Jenks Library, we have several well-used maps including copies of Horace Tuttle’s 1890 map of old Acton houses and sites. But when our co-president mentioned unfamiliar Henry Scarlett maps, we had to pull our copies out of the drawer where they had been filed. It’s time for the Scarlett maps, quite literally, to see the light of day.

In researching John Oliver, (c. 1750s-1840, Revolutionary War soldier), we used written records to determine who his neighbors were, but we were disappointed that we did not have an exact location for his farm. It does not appear on the Tuttle map. However, it turns out that this omission was corrected around 1906. Based on Acton residents’ memories, D. Henry Scarlett created his own map of Acton, meticulously adding features to Tuttle’s work. Where the Tuttle map had a blank space in North Acton between John Handley’s land and the railroad, Scarlett placed John Oliver’s farm. He also drew a “cart road” leading from what is now Great Road through John Handley’s property up to Oliver’s, as well as the Reed and Temple properties.

Scarlett’s location for Oliver’s farm jibes with the written materials that we have. Given John Oliver’s location away from any roads, it makes sense that access would be needed. Town records show that in September, 1800 “the Selectmen proposed and laid out a bridle way to accomidate John Oliver by Said Olivers and John Handleys erecting gates on bars where it is necessary.” The approved right-of-way, a rod and a half wide, started east of John Handley’s house “near the old way where Said Olivers used formerly to pass” then went northwest through Handley’s property and common land to “John Olivers land near the Southeast corner of Said Olivers House.” Though the exact route of the “cart road” in Scarlett’s map may not be perfect, it seems close. The map shows a gate, an open field, and a route ending just southeast of Oliver’s house. An 1821 deed held by the Society also jibes with the location of Oliver’s property on the Scarlett map. The deed states that the wood lot being sold was bounded “southwesterly by John Oliver’s to a heap of stones in the swamp.” Scarlett’s map shows John Oliver’s location on a brook with wetland nearby; parts of his property undoubtedly were wet, at least seasonally.

We are grateful to Henry Scarlett for answering our question about John Oliver’s farm. But seeing Scarlett's careful work made us curious about him. Research into his life story provided us with several surprises that will require a future blog post.

Family researchers sometimes find pre-1850 US federal censuses to be frustratingly sparse, but they can yield useful discoveries. Perusing the 1840 census, we discovered that it listed Acton’s pensioners from the Revolutionary War. Among them we found John Oliver, age 92. Curious about him, as his name was not as familiar as the minute men of April 19, 1775, we traced him through existing federal censuses, military documents, and Acton town records.

In the 1790 census, John Oliver’s household was listed in the “free white” column, with one male aged 16 or over, one male under 16, and five females. In 1800 and 1810, John Oliver’s household of five was listed in the column for other persons (i.e., not considered white, not slaves, and not “Indians not taxed”). The ages and gender of household members were not specified. In 1820, the household consisted of a free white male and female, both age 45 or older, with one person engaged in agriculture. In 1830, John Oliver’s household members were all listed as “free colored persons”; three males (one each in the age categories 10-23, 24-35, and 36-54), and seven females (two under 10, two between 10-23, three between 24-35, and one each between 36-54 and 55-99). (Oddly, this does not seem to include a male as old as John Oliver himself; there is not enough information to sort out whether it was a simple error or something else.) Finally, in 1840, John Oliver was listed as a 92-year-old military pensioner in a household of five “free white persons,” one male in his nineties, one female in her forties, and three children under the age of ten, two boys and a girl.

Though official records were inconsistent in classifying John Oliver’s race, they were remarkably consistent with respect to his Revolutionary War service. It is very well-documented, partly because he lived long enough to be eligible for a military pension and partly because he served in several companies for which written evidence exists. His 1832 pension application contains the record of John Oliver’s testimony in open court about his Revolutionary War service as well as corroborating statements from those who knew him.

John Oliver stated that at the end of April 1775 he enlisted at Acton, was stationed in Cambridge at “the colleges,” participated in Battle of Bunker Hill, and was moved to Winter Hill, serving for a total of eight months. (Locations are shown at the top left of a 1775 map.) His officers were Colonel John “Nickerson” (Framingham, actually Nixon), Lt. Colonel Thomas “Nickerson” (Framingham), Captain William Smith (Lincoln), 1st Lt. John Hale of Acton (actually Heald, probably the court clerk’s error), and 2nd Lt. John Hartwell (Lincoln). This shows up in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (MSSRW), a massive undertaking by the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the 1890s and early 1900s that pulled together extant written records to try to document military service. It corroborates John Oliver’s service in Captain William Smith’s Company, Col. John Nixon’s 5th regiment, with an enlistment date of April 24, 1775 (v. 11 p. 639). As he stated, he stayed after the original enlistment term of 3 months and 15 days had expired, as he showed up on a September 30, 1775 company roll. In John Oliver’s pension application, Solomon Smith of Acton, age 78, confirmed both John Oliver's membership in Capt. William Smith’s company and his eight months’ service. Smith mentioned officers Col. John “Nickson” of Framingham and 1st Lt. John Heald of Acton. Lt. Heald actually commanded the company at Bunker Hill, as Captain Smith was ill.

John Oliver stated that he enlisted in February 1776 for two months and was stationed in Cambridge at “the colleges,” serving in the company of Captain Asa Wheeler (of Sudbury) in Col. “Roberson’s” Regiment. In the pension application, James Wright of Carlisle, age 78, confirmed Oliver’s Feb. 1776 service in that company. MSSRW (p.639) similarly shows that he served in Capt. Asahel Wheeler’s Company, Col. John Robinson’s regiment that marched Feb. 4 (year not given), service 1 month, 28 days. That service was precipitated by the need in early 1776 to strengthen the American position around the city. The culmination of that effort was the evacuation of the British from Boston on March 17, 1776.

John Oliver next enlisted in Acton in September 1776, serving for two months and participating in the Battle of White Plains in Col. Eleazer Brooks’ Regiment, Capt. Simon Hunt’s company. Solomon Smith confirmed that 1776 service in his deposition, and MSSRW (p. 648) showed that John “Olliver” of Acton was with Captain Hunt at White Plains. Brooks’ regiment was in the heavy fighting at Chatterton Hill in the White Plains battle on October 28, 1776. They had apparently been sent across the Bronx River to occupy the hill but did not have time to create more than the most quickly-formed defenses before the fighting began. Accounts vary, but it seems that the primary defensive structure for John Oliver’s unit was a stone wall and that the Americans did not have artillery support to match their opponents'. The fighting against both British and Hessian forces was brief but intense, and the Americans retreated.

John Oliver stated that around April 1778, he enlisted at Acton for three months, but “owing to circumstances he hired one [_ben?] Leighton to go as a substitute for him for the term of one month.” After the month, John Oliver went to Cambridge where Leighton was stationed and served until the expiration of the three-month term. His officers were Col. Jonathan Reed (Littleton), Capt. Harrington (Lexington) and 1st Lt. Elisha Jones (Lincoln). This was the only service for which John Oliver seems to have lacked corroboration in 1832. The pension application reported “the only evidence that he can obtain would be from one Ephraim Billings whose mind is very much broken he is unable to give his deposition upon that account.” (Ephraim Billings was the sergeant of that company.) MSSRW (v. 11, p.647) has an entry that John Olivers of Acton was on a list of men detached from Col. Brooks’ Regiment to relieve guards at Cambridge (“year not given probably 1778”) and was reported as belonging to a company commanded by Lt. Heald, Jr. of Acton. According to a muster roll dated May 9, 1778, Col. Jonathan Reed of Littleton was in command of a detachment in Cambridge. Capt. Daniel Harrington and 2nd Lt. Elisha Jones served under him there, so John Oliver may well have been transferred to their command in the spring of 1778.

Finally, in 1780, John Oliver enlisted at Acton for six months’ service in and around West Point. He said that he served in Col. Brooks’ Regiment under Capt. White and Ensign Levi Parker (Westford). MSSRW (v. 11, p. 639) places him in Captain William Scott’s company, marching out July 22, 1780 and serving six months. Perhaps he was transferred; the Continental Army seems to have undergone various reorganizations over time. Several extant lists show John Oliver as a six-month volunteer in 1780. One list describes him as 23 years old, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, complexion dark, engaged for the town of Acton. He was present at Camp Totoway, Oct. 25, 1780. In the pension application, Charles Handly of Acton, age seventy, testified that Oliver enlisted into the continental service for six months in 1780 and first marched to West Point, from there to New Jersey, and then to West Point and then was discharged in Patterson’s Brigade. In May, 1782, the selectmen of Acton billed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for wages paid to John “Olivers” for this service. (The town had neglected to include his wages on a previously-submitted pay roll.)

In his pension record, John Oliver stated that he lived in Acton when he first enlisted and had lived in Acton since the war. Based on later records, he apparently had a young family during the war years, though their birth records are lacking. Acton’s records do show that in 1788, town meeting voted to abate his tax rates along with Peter Fletcher’s (no reason noted) and that in 1789, he was paid for working at Laws Bridge. In a less-than-appealing practice of earlier days, in 1790, the town of Acton “warned out” residents who had “lately” moved into town, a practice that was meant to assign responsibility for the poor to the towns from which they came. A fairly long list of people was warned out in 1790. Among those was John Oliver, “who is residing in Acton Labourer who has lately come into this town for the purpose of abiding therein not having obtained the Towns Consent" and therefore that he should "Depart the Limits thereof with his wife and their children.” Given his service in the Revolution, this seems to be an act of eye-opening ingratitude, but it was standard practice of the day. He was not the only veteran on the list or the only one who had been in town since before the Revolution. Duly warned about a lack of safety net, John Oliver continued to live in the Acton, apparently near the family of John Handley (who lived not far from Nagog Pond on the road to Littleton). In 1800, the selectmen laid out a “bridle way to accomidate John Oliver by said Olivers and John Handleys” that was accepted as a town “way” in May 1801. He was paid for “lowering a bridge with Stone near Mr. Jonathan Davis” in 1802. He showed up in town expenditures for 1813 - 1815 being compensated for supplying wood and taking care of people (apparently relatives) who were on the town’s needy list due to sickness or injury. Finally, in the 1830s, he was able to receive a pension for military service. He seems to have achieved old age in good health and outlived most of the Revolutionary War generation.

John Oliver died in November, 1840. His probate record included a petition to the court that Francis Tuttle be made administrator of the estate. It was signed by “all the sons & daughters of Mr. John Oliver Late of Acton” and included three heirs: Abijah, Joel and Fatina [Fatima]. (Presumably there could have been other children who died earlier; Abigail Triator, daughter of John Oliver, died in Acton Oct. 13, 1819, for example. Without birth records or detailed census data, it is very difficult to put together the whole family.) John Oliver left behind a home farm with a house, barn and about 14 acres of land (appraised at $300), a cow, hay, lumber, corn, potatoes, pork, beef, beans, tools, some furniture, household goods, old books, a few pieces of furniture, and a note with interest. He also had debts to Ephraim and Joel Oliver (grandson and son, respectively) and Edward Tuttle. Abijah and Joel signed a petition to sell the real estate to pay off the debts because a partial sale of the land would “greatly injure” the farm. Both sons stayed in Acton, however, and can be found in later years’ federal and state censuses and local records.

We would like to find out more about John Oliver’s life, both in Acton and before he arrived. The 1790 warning out notice does not mention where he originally came from, but his pension application says that he was born in Concord in 1759. We have not been able to corroborate that in Concord’s records. (A search only yielded a John Oliver born to Peter and Margaret in 1747. That date better matches his age of 83 given in his 1832 pension record, the age of 92 in the 1840 census, and a supposed 1772 birth year for son Abijah. However, it obviously conflicts with the 1759 birth year also given in the pension application and his age of 23 in the 1780 descriptive soldier list.) We have not found a marriage record for John Oliver in the 1770s before the children evidently were born. His children’s births were not recorded in Acton at the time. (Only Abijah appears in Acton births, but in a later volume and without parents’ names. It seems to have been added to Acton's vital records in the 1800s when Abijah's children's births were recorded as a group.) John Oliver’s death is mentioned in the town’s vital records without details, though his probate file is an excellent source of information about his family and possessions as of 1840. The house on his farm presumably did not survive; his homestead was not marked on an 1890 map of Acton’s old houses and sites created by Horace Tuttle (although John’s sons’ homes were marked). John Oliver’s grave evidently was marked with a Sons of the Revolution marker in 1895. Unfortunately, its location is no longer remembered; no gravestone exists. It is likely that he was buried in Forest Cemetery as was his son Joel and his daughter-in-law Esther, but that is conjecture.

History can easily be forgotten unless someone makes an effort to preserve it. From the mid-nineteenth century on, Acton’s local historians and native sons and daughters wanted to emphasize Acton’s importance in the Revolutionary struggle by remembering its “first at the bridge” role. One can’t blame them when reading Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 History of the Town of Concord (and Acton) in which he made the dismissive statements about the town of Acton that its history before the Revolution “contains no features worthy of particular notice” and afterwards “is of little general interest.” In reaction to such attitudes, more historical attention has been given to people who fought on April 19, 1775, and less notice has been given to others’ later war service. Acton provided many soldiers to the Revolutionary cause. Some of their identities, unfortunately, will never be known with certainty. Some, however, can be discovered. John Oliver’s service was extensive and his life in Acton long. He should be remembered.

1821 Deed mentioning John Oliver's land with a boundary marked by a "heap of stones in the swamp."